Bighead Moon Stories are in the tradition of classic hard science fiction.

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Peter Thorpe's Rocket Paintings - high quality reproductions as well as current originals - are available through the Peter Thorpe page at Novaspace Graphics. Also, Rocket Paintings are on various products at the RocketZoom Zazzle store.

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Upcoming stories: UFOs Over Woodstock, The Humans Next Door, Fan the Ember Moon.

<04.20.2269 Rodenka Carvala’s Classic, Nude and At Home, Is Reissued by Luna ID>

Known as the ‘Sex Goddess’ of Luna, Rodenka Carvala is, if anything, an icon of her age. Born to live her entire life unclothed in a fur-lined cave carved into the wall of Bighead City’s Grand Plaza, she commands the respect and admiration of generations of Lunar colonists and System travelers. Her classic book, Nude and at Home, is filled with gems of human psychoanalysis. If it is true that the only completely effective therapy is that which is ‘hands on’, then Rodenka certainly personifies the best that Luna has to offer in sex therapy. And while her clients never actually have sex with her, she is credited by many of them as the best ‘sex’ they ever had.

Danlyle Peoples was engaged in soft slow physical entanglement with Rodenka Carvala, Sex Goddess of Bighead City, Luna, a woman who had never worn clothes and who had never left her fur lined cave. She was neither thin nor fat, but very nicely rounded, so that, as they floated on an air mattress in the pool in the center of her cave, she added little more than his own weight again to their combined mass.

The mattress that they rolled upon was very large, which made it easy for them to move about without falling over into the warm water (which was salted for added buoyancy).

"Tell me," Rodenka asked, looking down into Danlyle’s brown eyes, "what’s the best thing you like about Rodenka?" A soft light fell upon her face from her open balcony. Her cave was set into the north wall of the city's Grand Plaza, three levels up, aside the big windows that looked out onto the stark Lunar surface of Bighead Crater. Just inside those windows, and hanging a few meters reach from her balcony rail, floated the famously large holo of Luna, which spun in the wide space above the Plaza floor. It’s light varied as the holo cycled through display ads and news feeds, which were layered onto various spots on the grid of the Lunar globe. It flashed light into her cave, and onto their faces.

Danlyle understood the question. He knew Rodenka through her writings, and knew that the answer to such a question should refer not to her, but to Luna itself.

"Gravity," he said as he turned her over so that he was now on top. "I like your gravity. It’s so wonderful to be light, it’s all I can do to keep from bouncing off the walls...you know. But without the heavy suit," he gestured to his discarded visitors suit, piled in a corner by Rodenka’s couch, "I weigh one sixth of my Earth self and I feel like a superman!"

Rodenka smiled up at him.

"So, how do you like having a happy Earth guy on top of you?"

"Heavy! Rodenka is not so used to heavy Earth men!" They both laughed.

"You know," she said in his ear, "I rarely have Earth client. It is nice, yes?"

"I couldn’t come to Luna without making an appointment with you!"

"But, now, now, " she said as she looked down, "don’t get too familiar with Rodenka! What’s this I feel?"

"No, no, please," Danlyle begged, "I know the rules. Please excuse my enthusiasm, I can’t help it. But I love what you are. You are so important to so many people. I first read Harmoneed as a teen and since then I’ve been such a fan of yours. I am amazed that you can have so many people, hold them intimately, and never actually have a lover. You have no partner, no real sex, so that you can serve others, it’s so beautiful, really,...but I think that’s so sad too!"

"Do not be sad for Rodenka! No!" She smiled like a goddess. "I have good life! And yet you are here because you are sad, right, with your partner...your wife?"

"Paile, my wife of ten years, and I decided to take our anniversary on the Moon in an attempt to put some excitement back into our love life. We are here for the turn around of the Pimenta. It’s one of the quicker packages but it’s been very expensive nevertheless. So, six days stay...at the Hilton no less!...and it’s been three days now, and, so far, no renewed love life."

"And she knows that you are here with Rodenka?"

"Well, no, not exactly. I mean, she knows that I love your writing, and that I have saved your books." Danlyle blushed. "She knows I’m your fan. But she never knew about this appointment. I wanted to tell you my story, alone..."

"So, this thing you have for me," she looked down again, "you wish to have for her?"

"That’s right. I do love her, you see, but it’s been, well, rather cold for some time now. I don’t know. After a while, you just grow used to everything..."

"But you hold Rodenka like you want to hold your wife? Why am I better?"

"No, of course, I understand. You can’t be better. As I’ve said, I’ve read your writings for years now. But it’s easier said than done...right?"

"OK. I have answer for you." She pulled herself from under him, turning up and over, so that she was aside him. Looking into his eyes, she slowly drew her hand down the center of his chest, down past his navel, and then she turned him around so that she could climb on top of him. "What you need to do," she said, "is this..."

"Yes, hello, my name is Paile Peoples, and I have reason to believe that my husband is in your cave. I mean, I know he’s in there! He has to be!"

Danlyle sat up with a start. "Oh, no!" he whispered.

Rodenka tried to hold him back, but Danlyle dove into the water in the general direction of the balcony. Rodenka dove after him and was out of the water only a half a meter behind him.

"Paile Peoples I wish to see you!" she said to the air as she grabbed Danlyle’s arm. Then she turned to him. "Listen to me," she whispered to his frightened face, "this cannot be accident!"

"No, she has no idea!" he said and pulled away. As he ran to the balcony, water rolled off his bare back, splashing slow syrupy drops onto the fur floor. He stopped and turned for a second to give Rodenka a look of desperation, and then he jumped over the railing, into the bright lights of the spinning holo of Luna, three levels above the floor of the Grand Plaza.

Rodenka turned to her com and said, "Police Chief Kossler. Now!"

She turned again and looked out and over the Plaza. Danlyle was floating down towards the center of the fountain pool next to Speaker’s Corner. Good. A new Earther, pre-acclimation, and naked without a heavy suit, could have survived the drop anyway, but a water landing made it easy. She saw the splash as he hit. Looked like he was going to be fine.

"Are you going to let me in?!!" Paile shouted through the com. And right after that, another voice, "Kossler here. What’s up babe?"

"Secure line!" Rodenka shouted to com, then, "Poopsie! You old dog. I love hearing your voice. OK. Well, I got an emergency. Client just bailed. Earther. Kinda like him. He’s in the pot by Speakers. Wife at the door and pissed. So, hold him for me, please? I’m going to try and see what ticks with the misses."

"God, I adore you."

"That’s Goddess, honey, and I adore you too, my only love, but just get me that guy, OK?"

"You got it, Moopsie!"

Paile Peoples was not amused to see Rodenka Carvala wearing a frown and nothing else when she was finally let through the cave door.

"Oh my God! What have you been doing with my Danny?" Paile could see the empty heavy suit on the floor. It was red, the color of Danlyle’s suit. "I KNEW he was going to come here the first day I went shopping alone, I KNEW IT! All he ever talks about is YOU!"

"Paile Peoples, I am protected by video surveillance, police line and community watch. Be careful of what you say! You talk to Rodenka, of Luna. Your husband was just here. He is here no longer. You must help me. Put aside your feelings, now, and come look!"

Paile stood her ground for a moment, then ran up to the balcony, next to Rodenka, and looked down onto the Plaza floor.

Her husband, naked as Rodenka, was being hauled out of a waterpool by security officers. People stood around and watched curiously.

Paile turned to Rodenka and said, "Who the hell are you to do this to him?"

"He has done it to himself. He was running from you, but it is not your fault!"

"Why...you!" Paile lunged at Rodenka, catching her off guard. They tumbled over the thick fur floor and fell into the central pool. Paile’s heavy suit immediately pulled her to the bottom. Rodenka swam down to Paile and grabbed the front of her suit. With one motion she had the front open. She reached in and put her arms around Pail’s hips. She pulled hard and they both floated, naked, to the surface.

After they caught their breaths, Paile looked at the woman who was holding her and asked, "What...what, are you?"

"Rodenka is sex therapist. Old style hands on. Best in Luna. I hold you now like I hold your husband. Am here to serve only. He loves you, he says so."

Paile tried to squirm out of Rodenka’s hold. She was smaller but much stronger. Her Earth muscles had only spent a few days on Luna. Pre-acclimation, all Earthers had a bit too much strength. The heavy suits helped keep them in check, but only so much. And now Paile was free of her suit. But Rodenka knew how to move in the syrupy water better than Paile.

"What about Danny!" Paile cried.

"No worry! He will be OK. What about reason he came to me in first place?"

Paile pounded her fists on Rodenka’s chest. "I don’t know!"

Rodenka held on and said, "It is because he loves you, but he is confused. Do you understand?"

Paile kicked in the water. She tried to get away again, but Rodenka was quick. "I don’t know," she said, exasperated.

"He is confused. That is that. Calm down and hold Rodenka!"

Paile put up one last, weak, protest, then gave up. What the hell. It felt so good to be held, anyway.

Chief Kossler looked at the figure of Danlyle Peoples with disgust. The Earth man sat naked on a stool in the security annex. Several security personnel surrounded the waterlogged stranger. A guard placed Danlyle’s head against a frame that sat before him, and a sharp light scanned his right eye. The com next to it blinked and then a photo of Danlyle, his passport photo, came into focus.

"Ah, so your name is Peoples," Kossler said. "From Earth too. Ah. Mmmmm. I should give you a bit of sympathy on that account, but I won’t. You have caused quite a bit of destruction today. Explain to me one thing, Mister Peoples, why I should not shove you through the closest Plaza airlock? You have harmed public property. You have made a spectacle of yourself. And although Luna is much more lax that Earth is in the morals of skin, why do you think you have the right to expose us to your particular form of, well, ugliness?"

Danlyle kept his head low as he responded, "I told you already. I was on an appointment with Ro..."

"OK, enough of you! Put him in a holder, boys."

Paile’s arms were wrapped around Rodenka, who was lying in front of her on the soft, warm, furry floor. She buried her head in Rodenka’s bushy red hair, searching for the white neck underneath. "I don’t think I want to resolve this," she said. "Let him stew!"

"No, my dear, you do not understand." Rodenka rubbed Paile’s hands and drew them down and across her belly. "He cannot be there long without penalty. Already, you will owe city security for the pick-up."

"What?" Paile said, alarmed. "Owe?"

"Why yes, I imagine a few thousand credits already..."

"Oh, no, we can’t afford that! We’d have to leave our hotel and our flight back isn’t for 3 days yet..."

"Now, now. You let Rodenka take care of all. Transfer your LunaBank tourist balance to me, and let’s see what we got. I’ll get your Danlyle out. I can, you know, with my connections. Everyone loves Rodenka. Then we get your luggage here and you can spend the rest of your vacation with Rodenka. When I check you out of your hotel, you will get refund. Would not otherwise. Trust Rodenka. You have tourist card with you?"

"Transfer my balance? My credits? You mean everything that we have left here plus the escrow with LunaBank?"

"Yes, of course. It is only way. If legal system holds your husband past your departure...image what that would cost!"

Paile brushed away the red hair from Rodenka’s neck, and stared at the white skin in disbelief. "And I was going to be the one to bite...!" she said.

"OK, you bite. Go ahead." Rodenka laughed. "Then Rodenka must get busy. Rodenka will have to spend some time alone, too, in her back cave." She waved to a curtained alcove in the fur-lined wall that was opposite the balcony. "I will work on com in private to make this happen fast. You understand? You will be OK out here? No jump off balcony?"

Paile looked at the perfectly smooth white neck of Rodenka and placed her lips on the back of it. She did not bite, but instead whispered, "My card is in my suit. But don’t go get it just yet."

Danlyle sat dejected on the floor of a ‘holding cage’ in the security annex. The cage was, in fact, just that. A cage. The bars were thin and spindly, but he did not try to test them. Too many people were moving about, some stopping to stare at him.

He had fallen asleep once or twice, only to be wakened by some commotion. Things settled down after a time, and then he did sleep for a long while.

Eventually he woke when the cage was kicked several times by a security guard. "You are free to go with condition," the guard said.

Danlyle could see a cloaked and hooded figure standing with Chief Kossler, only a few meters from his cage. The strange figure’s hood was so pulled down that Danlyle could make out nothing of its face. The two spoke closely for a moment, then turned toward the cage. The hooded figure had a heavy suit, which it gave to the guard, who then prompted Danlyle to put it on. It smelled familiar to him. It was his suit.

The person with the hood took his hand, firmly. He couldn’t be sure, but it felt like a woman’s hand. A strong grip but a soft hand.

They made a short journey through the Grand Plaza, into a side hall, up a drop, and then through another hall, to the door that, he finally realized, led to the cave of the Sex Goddess of Luna. Rodenka’s door. The figure in the hood bowed deeply then ran off. A moment later, the cave door opened to reveal a naked and frowning Paile.

"Paile....?"

"Get in here and don’t your dare say anything but ‘please’ for the next three days..."

Rodenka sat at her com and reviewed her client list for the upcoming cycle. Nothing unusual. Certainly no strangers. She sighed. It was nice to have the work. But sometimes it just got to be so boring. Then there was the occasional Earther. She looked at her central pool with approval. A naked Earth couple lay there on her big air mattress. They seemed happy in their entanglement. Well, It should be worth it to them, Rodenka thought. After all, advice isn’t cheap!

But then, she thought, people really were lovely, wherever they came from, when they finally got to Luna.